Communication and Media Studies at Nebraska Wesleyan University

Nebraska Wesleyan's Communication and Media Studies program produces first-year earnings of $41,188—significantly above the national median of $34,959 and placing it in the 82nd percentile nationally. Within Nebraska, though, the picture is more modest: graduates earn just slightly above the state median of $40,445, landing at the 60th percentile. They're essentially matching what University of Nebraska at Omaha delivers ($41,327) but coming in slightly ahead of UNL ($39,702), which may surprise parents considering the name-brand recognition difference.

The debt load of $25,500 translates to a 0.62 debt-to-earnings ratio, meaning graduates carry about 7.5 months of their first year's salary in debt. That's manageable by most standards and roughly aligned with what other Nebraska programs require. For a liberal arts degree, these fundamentals look solid—graduates aren't buried under disproportionate debt relative to their earning power.

The catch here is sample size: with fewer than 30 graduates in the dataset, one or two outliers could be skewing these numbers higher or lower than what's typical. If your student is seriously considering this program, ask the school directly about typical career outcomes and whether they can provide data from multiple graduating classes. The numbers suggest decent value, but you'll want confirmation that this isn't statistical noise before making a $100,000+ investment.